The New Girl Next Desk
by stophoggingtheblanket
Summary: A new girl transfers to Seishun Gakuen. She's pretty normal, as far as normal goes. But sitting next to Kikumaru Eiji can't be any good...can it? EijixOC
1. And so it starts

_This is my first fanfic, so please don't be too harsh..._

**The New Girl Next Desk**

"Oof!" Kikumaru Eiji did a back flip and landed on two feet. The person he had bumped into, however, was not so lucky. He beheld a brunette on the floor with books scattered around her.

"Gomen... sumimasen." He apologised rapidly, helping her to her feet. Collecting her books for her, he asked, "Are you alright?"

"Hai." Warm brown eyes looked up at him.

_Hmmm... I don't remember seeing her before. Impossible! I thought I knew everyone, nya?_ He glanced at his watch_. I'm going to be late if I don't hurry!_ He handed her the books, flashed a blinding Colgate smile at her and ran to catch up with Fuji.

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"We have a new student who has just transferred here." The teacher announced. Everybody stopped their work and looked up. Most students did not transfer so late in the schooling year.

"She moved from Hokkaido to Tokyo." Ah, that explained it. The scratching of pen on paper resumed at all the desks. Except one.

Eiji stared transfixed at the girl. The same hazel eyes and shoulder-length brown hair. Uh-huh, it was the same girl he bumped into just now. He smiled – so he did know everyone in the school after all. She wasn't counted 'cause she was new.

"Perhaps you would like to tell us a bit about yourself."

The girl looked up at that. She saw Eiji and did a double take.

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She saw the familiar-looking red curls and a faint gleam of recognition entered her eyes. He just grinned at her. Then she looked around. Why was the whole class staring expectantly at her? The teacher was no better.

_Oh, yes! I'm supposed to introduce myself._

"Ohayo. I'm Shishida Kyuuri from Hokkaido. Hajimemashite." She bowed.

"Thank you, Shishida-kun. Your place is..." He consulted the seating plan. "Next to Kikumaru Eiji."

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By the time school had ended, she felt like she'd known Eiji all her life. The redheaded boy was at his bouncy best today, talking non-stop in between classes and generally explaining the school in a very roundabout sort of way. In fact, Fuji had once interrupted their conversation to inquire suspiciously if Eiji had eaten anything particularly sweet at breakfast today.

"Only a plate of pancakes," had been the instantaneous reply.

He invited her to watch their tennis club's practice session if she wanted to before waving goodbye and heading to the locker rooms. She was smiling when her phone beeped, signalling an incoming message. When she read it, her face fell.

_Uncle's coming late today. He's got a business meeting. And it just **had** to be on my first day of school._ She heaved a sigh. Oh well, she could always go watch the tennis club.

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_Review it!_

_...please?_


	2. Tennis time

_My baby! Don't criticize it!_

_Nah, just kidding._

_Thanks for reviewing! Sorry about the "fastness" in the earlier chapter…I'm terrible at beginnings. Um…Kyuuri does have a sort of nondescript personality right now, cause I haven't really decided what she should be like yet! ) Care to gimme a suggestion? I'll try my best not to make this a Mary Sue, which is sort of complicated by the fact that I don't quite know what a Mary Sue is. Wish me luck!_

_Oh, yes, I almost forgot. The disclaimer._

_Prince of Tennis does not belong to me…if it did, I'd be rolling in cash right now._

**Chapter 2**

"Oishi!" The black-haired boy smiled at his doubles partner, who was, as usual, bursting with energy. "There's a new girl in my class, and she's sitting next to me!"

"That's good." He knew Eiji's penchant for meeting new people. "Do you have a lot of homework?"

"Homework? Nya, Oishi, you come to tennis practice and you talk about _homework!_"

"Ne, just checking. In case you need help or something…"

Eiji briefly scanned his homework list in his mind. It was quite depressing. Actually, _very_ depressing. _Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't think ab-_

"Let's warm up, Oishi!" He made a last-ditch attempt to drive the image of him sitting beside a mountain of papers that would never finish out of his mind.

"So you're alright with your work?"

"Hai!" The answer was almost frantic. The thought of any work (other than tennis and teeth brushing) generally depressed Eiji.

"Alright, everybody warm up!" _Buchou! My saviour!_ He could have kissed Tezuka's feet by then.

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Kyuuri arrived at the tennis courts after some amount of getting lost and misdirected to find that the tennis club had already started practicing. She stood at the fence, watching.

_Tennis is boring._

She looked at the balls flying over the net until her eyes crossed.

_Tennis is **very** boring._

Considering how she didn't know anything about it except that you need a bouncy ball, a racquet and a net to play it, she thought she had stuck around here long enough. If she stayed any longer, she'd go bonkers.

Just as she turned to leave, a voice stopped her.

"Isn't he just gorgeous?"

She looked at the speaker, a starry-eyed girl and at the subject, who seemed to be a young man with an impressive ability to keep a poker face. She had long since given up on watching him, since he was no fun to watch – his expression never changed.

"Ah." She lifted her foot to walk away.

"He's so handsome. He…" And she was treated to a full description of the young man's (whose name seemed to be Tezuka) charms. After listening for about a minute of "his gorgeous hair, his firm jaw line, his elegant glasses", she walked away as fast as she could without seeming _too_ impolite. Hey, nobody had ever accused her of being patient, but how much could one stomach, after all?

Her phone beeped. She looked at the display screen, and smiled in relief.

_Thank goodness uncle's here. This place is starting to drive me nuts. At least, the extra-curricular part of it._

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_There. How was it? Better? _

_Review!_


	3. Homework troubles

_I have since found out that I am incapable of writing long chapters; so let's keep it short and sweet, shall we? To balance the scales, I'll update frequently. Promise!_

_Hehe...I'm a fast person by nature... I'm trying to slow down..._

_-pants-_

_Gosh, it's hard work slowing down!_

**Chapter 3**

Eiji yawned. Last night had been absolute torture. The amount of work the teachers gave… "What subject is it now?" He asked, not even bothering to address anybody in particular.

"English." Kyuuri answered.

"Any homework?" He yawned mid-sentence.

"Page 12, questions 1 – 10." She checked her organizer.

"Yup, questions one to – WHAT?" He jolted awake. "There's homework for English!" Almost before the words were out of his mouth, he was rummaging in his bag. He took out a book labeled 'Grammar' and flipped through it desperately. When he reached the page, his shoulders slumped. His hunch was correct. He hadn't done the work.

He looked up. _Teacher's not here yet._ Then he looked at Kyuuri.

"Can I borrow your book?"

"No."

"Please?" He pouted.

"No. You're just going to copy my answers."

"C'mon." He wheedled. The answer was still a resounding no.

Time was running out. He turned to Fuji, one seat behind him.

"Can I borrow your book? Please?" The tensai gave a small nod, smiling.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Eiji literally snatched the book off the table and started to copy down the answers into his own book. Not before, however, sticking his tongue out at Kyuuri.

Fuji simply watched the scene in front of him unfolding, smiling even wider as a new variable was introduced into the equation: the teacher.

"Kikumaru! Are you copying your friend's work?"

Eiji looked up. "N-no, sensei! I was just checking my answers. You see – " And he was off, words tumbling out of his mouth faster than a bullet train. No one understood what he was saying, least of all his teacher.

" – so you see, sensei, I wasn't doing anything wrong at all." Eiji finished his explanation, of which only the beginning and the end were even remotely understandable.

And whaddaya know?

He got off the hook.

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_Review! ;__P_


	4. Art vs tennis madhouse

_Don't scold me for the long delay! I crashed headlong into the terrible obstacle that all authors fear – writer's block! Sheesh!_

_Anyway, people, thanks for reviewing! I'll try to update at least once a week – except during exams, okay?_

**Chapter 4**

Kyuuri had decided to join the art club, mostly from lack of anything better. Which was why she was trudging to a small classroom long after school hours. Well, maybe not _long_, but still... who enjoyed staying back at school?

She passed the tennis court, and hearing voices, she automatically looked up. She had a vague impression of Eiji saying something about tennis practice today... She glanced at them. And stopped. And stared.

...what tennis practice?

It was chaos at the tennis courts, to put it mildly. Two boys were fighting on the courts, heedless of the tennis racquets lying on the courts almost begging them to stop fighting and start playing. Shouts of "Baka no mamushi!" could be heard clearly across the court. Others were talking at the tops of their voices, discussing goodness knows what while some just stood by watching the scene.

_Escape from this madhouse!_ was her first thought. But that was nipped in the bud by the sound of her name being called.

"Kyuuri!" A familiar redhead bounced up. "You came to see our tennis practice!"

"Well, actually – " But she was given no chance to finish explaining that she had definitely _not_ come here to witness the tennis club's antics as Eiji cut her off with a brilliant smile. "Come on in!"

_Go into th – that place? With **those** people there? Playing **that** game?_

"No!" It came out a little firmer than intended.

His smile dimmed a little. "Why not? It'll be fun!"

"F-fun?" She nearly choked on her own slightly hysterical laughter. Picturing balls bouncing endlessly from one end of the court to the other did not help a single whit.

"Nya, Kyuuri! Of course tennis is fun!" His enthusiasism would have been enough to convince her, had she not already experienced brain atrophy that day she went to watch the tennis club practise. She definitely couldn't afford to lose more brain cells.

"I've got to go for my art club meeting!" _Ah! Saved!_

"Oh. Then it doesn't really matter, I suppose." His smile became positively dazzling. "You could always come next time!"

"...I'm sure I could." _Being able to make it is a totally different thing from actually coming, after all._ She grinned cheekily. "See you!"

With that, she walked away as fast as her legs could carry her. Suddenly art class didn't seem so bad anymore.

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_Sorry about the quality of the writing; I was, as I said earlier, stuck in a frozen state. Or at least, my writing was._

_Anyway, whaddya think? Review!_


	5. Science explosion

_Thanks for reviewing! I went on holiday last week and discovered that my sister's laptop was strictly **not **for uploading fanfics... :( _

_Anyway, I'm back! And more importantly, with a new chapter! Yay!_

**Chapter 5**

"Kyuuri! Partner me!"

"Okay," She assented.

The teacher droned on, prompting a huge yawn from Eiji.

"You may now begin your experiment."

"What were we supposed to do again?"

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"Then, pour the tube of sodium nitrate into the flask." Kyuuri read out.

"This one?" Eiji reached for a neon green tube.

"No! The one next to it."

He picked up the test tube and started to tip the contents into the boiling flask.

"...I think."

And the end of the world arrived with a big bang.

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"Oww..." Kyuuri sat up and surveyed the damage. She looked at Eiji, still shouting "Itai! Itai!" at the top of his lungs, and at the teacher, striding towards them with a determined look on his face.

"Uh-oh. We're in trouble."

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"Sensei, I can explain. It was an accident. What happened was – "

_Thousand-and-one, thousand-and-two, _Fuji counted mentally. _Thousandandthree,thousandandfour – oh, heck._ He gave up at that: Eiji was just too fast.

" – therefore, we didn't do anything wrong." Eiji finished his explanation with a flourish.

_Please, God. Please..._ Kyuuri had never thought that the day would come when she actually prayed for Eiji to manage talking his way out of something.

"... ah." The teacher blinked. "Kikumaru, Shishida. Detention after school today." And he swept away, leaving two very visibly distressed students and an utterly messy laboratory in his wake.

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"Tennis practice!" Eiji moaned. "Buchou will kill me for missing practice!"

"Well, what about me? Staying at school for a whole hour just because of a stupid science experiment gone wrong," Kyuuri grumbled.

"But still, that was quite a big explosion," Eiji said ruefully, looking at the disaster area which they were busy cleaning.

"If by that you mean we have to do a lot of cleaning, then yes, I definitely agree," She said, swishing her cloth half-heartedly over the mess on the table. "Well, we'd better get the job done, or he'll keep us in here longer."

"He's cruel..." Eiji groaned from where he was supposedly mopping the floor, but in reality creating an even bigger mess, thanks to his sloppy work.

"...who's cruel?" An authoritative voice asked.

" – s-sensei!"

"Who's cruel?" The teacher repeated his question.

"Uh...buchou!" He blurted out the first person that came to mind.

The teacher raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" But before he could interrogate them further, he was called away by another teacher.

"Just in time." Kyuuri commented.

Eiji, however, was not looking at things so optimistically. "What did I just say!"

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Buchou is _definitely_ going to kill me now."

"Why? ...oh."

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"Well, that's done."

"Finally."

"Finished? Alright, you can go home now."

"Hai! Arigatou, sensei." And they both rushed out of the laboratory, neither willing to spend a single minute longer in that prison.

"Bye!" They bowed in unison, and parted ways – one heading home, or rather hurrying home, and the other dragging his feet all the way to the tennis courts, where his doom was awaiting him in the form of a single person – Tezuka.

But Eiji was wrong. Tezuka simply handed him over to the devil himself – Inui.

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